A daily record.
Featuring photos of wild birds and nature, mainly from Okinawa Main Island and Ishigaki Island

Yellow-browed Wagtail, first-winter.

Yellow-browed Wagtail, first-winter.

Buff-bellied Pipit bathing.

Red-throated Pipit numbers are down and Buff-bellied Pipit numbers are up.

Buff-bellied Pipit, first-winter.

White Wagtail (leucopsis), first-winter.

White Wagtail, first-winter.

Blue Rock Thrush, female. Probably first-winter, but I haven't looked closely enough at a bird I see all the time, so I'm not really sure. ^^;

Two juvenile female Ferruginous Ducks. There was a juvenile male too, but it stayed deep in the grass and I couldn't get a shot….

A juvenile female Ferruginous Duck.

A Ferruginous Duck on a different day.

Likewise, a different individual Ferruginous Duck on a different day.

Greater Scaup, a rare bird in Okinawa. First-year male.

Greater Scaup, first-year female.

Common Pochard, adult female.

A young Eurasian Spoonbill. Only one spoonbill this season.

Ryukyu Striated Heron, adult male.

Same individual as above. Foraging while moving along a drainage channel.

The Northern Lapwings were all juveniles — around 12 birds.

Black-headed Gulls in the rice fields. Up to about eight birds, all in first-winter plumage.

A good number of Common Snipe are wintering.

Common Sandpiper, first-winter. Wintering singly here and there.

Common Redshank, adult winter plumage. Wintering in a small flock that includes both adults and juveniles.

Red-tailed Tropicbird, juvenile.

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle that has been showing reliably lately.

It shows no wariness, but I'm keeping my distance as prolonged observation could interfere with its foraging.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl on my first night search in a while.

A male Yellow-browed Bunting.

Another individual Yellow-browed Bunting. Also a male.

A male Siberian Greenish Warbler in winter plumage.

Same individual as above.

Same individual as above. On alert for a Common Kestrel that appeared.

The Common Blackbird ducked into the bushes in an instant. ^^; The photo is a blurry mess, but it turned up somewhere unexpected so I'm logging it. This season, Common Blackbirds keep popping up here and there at a leisurely pace.

A female Daurian Redstart. At first I couldn't see the white wing patch and my heart skipped a beat. ^^;

The Dusky Warbler was moving with flocks of Japanese White-eyes and similar birds.

A Crested Serpent Eagle gripping a mouse in its right foot.

The adult female Ruddy Shelduck back again in the same paddy field.

Ferruginous Duck, juvenile male.

Ferruginous Duck, juvenile female.

I thought it was about to take off, but it just shook its body.

I wonder if the brown will become even stronger once it moults into first breeding plumage.

Female Northern Pintail.

Male Gadwall.

Male Eurasian Wigeon. Moulting into breeding plumage.

Male Northern Shoveler.

Male Common Teal moulting into breeding plumage.

A Little Grebe stretching its legs out onto the water's surface.

A juvenile Yellow Bittern hiding in the grass.

A Yellow Bittern that caught a small fish.

Common Snipe, 1st-winter plumage.

A Siberian Stonechat in wintering mode.